Some Republicans are still pushing for repeal, given the tiny chance that they could still scrounge up enough votes before Sept. 30, the deadline for using budgetary rules that prevent a filibuster on the measure.

Vice President Pence said Friday that he and President Trump are “undeterred” in their effort to repeal the law, while Democrats say that they are on guard and will keep up the pressure.

But it seems more likely that the debate could be moving into a new stage.

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Democrats are pushing for bipartisan talks in the Senate health committee, which Republicans shut down earlier this week.

McCain cited those talks in opposing the new bill, and Trump has given more nods toward working with Democrats in recent weeks. The president also wants to turn to tax reform, which is taking up an increasing amount of his workload.

A key issue in the bipartisan talks would be addressing payments known as cost-sharing reductions that help insurers provide coverage to people.

President Trump has threatened to cancel those payments in an effort to make ObamaCare “implode.” And he still could.

The bipartisan Senate talks were aimed at providing congressional approval for those funds to cement their legality and prevent Trump from canceling them. Insurers say that step would be critical in giving them certainty and preventing premium increases.

Without any bipartisan action or a final long-shot repeal attempt, ObamaCare, which has extended coverage to roughly 20 million people, will remain on the books.

Despite worries that there would be counties next year without any insurance options, insurers have stepped in to fill every area. Standard & Poors found in July that ObamaCare markets are “stabilizing.”

Democrats believe there are plenty of risks to the law, however, as long as Trump is in the White House.

They accuse the president of threatening to “sabotage” the law — both with his threats on the insurer payments and a 90 percent cut to funds used to advertise and enroll people in the exchanges.

Within hours of McCain’s announcement on Friday, Democrats were pointing to an announcement that the administration would be taking healthcare.gov offline from 12 a.m. to 12 p.m. every Sunday during the enrollment period.

A spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the downtime is part of regularly scheduled “maintenance outages” that happen every year. “This year is no different,” the spokesman said.

Frederick Isasi, executive director of Families USA, a leading pro-ObamaCare group, said that repeal is still a “very, very real threat for million and millions of Americans.”

But beyond that threat, he warned: “It’s a real concern that the administration is trying to sabotage the ability of Americans to get high quality affordable coverage.”

He warned that if enrollment efforts fall off, fewer healthy people will be enrolled in ObamaCare, which will harm the long-term sustainability of the exchanges.

McCain’s opposition is a major blow to the seven-year effort to repeal the law.

Yet such a plan would put tax reform at risk, something that seems unlikely at this stage.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, sounded a note of disappointment but did not criticize McCain after his announcement.

“Certainly today’s news is not a positive sign for people yearning for lower insurance premiums but to criticize Senator McCain would be to allow my disappointment to manifest itself in a manner that won’t produce a different outcome,” Meadows said. “Amendments and a floor vote should still be allowed.”